In a U.S. population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cohen et al found that Black patients had the lowest incidence of cervical adenocarcinoma—but the poorest related 5-year survival and overall mortality—compared to patients with cervical adenocarcinoma in other...
On September 20, 2022, sodium thiosulfate was approved to reduce the risk of ototoxicity associated with cisplatin in pediatric patients (aged ≥ 1 month) with localized, nonmetastatic solid tumors.1 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in the multicenter open-label SIOPEL 6...
Long-term results of the phase III Mantle Cell Lymphoma Younger Trial were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Hermine et al. They showed a maintained advantage in time to treatment failure and an overall survival advantage with R-CHOP/R-DHAP (alternating rituximab plus...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nyberg et al developed the risk model CanRisk-Prostate for predicting the development of prostate cancer based on age, detailed cancer family history, moderate- to high-risk pathogenic variants, and a polygenic score for common low-risk...
In 2017, I noticed a roadside billboard touting the benefits of low-dose computed tomography (CT) imaging for lung cancer screening. The message probably saved my life. The public service campaign, called Saved by the Scan from the American Lung Association, included an Internet address where I...
Jefferson Health’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center (SKCC) recently launched the Geriatric Oncology Center of Excellence to address the needs of a growing patient population through innovative research and care delivery methods via a multidisciplinary approach. The center identifies and removes barriers ...
Gladys Magaly Rodriguez, MD, was born in Piedras Negras, Mexico, a city situated along the banks of the Rio Grande. At age 6, her family immigrated to Eagle Pass, Texas, a border town of some 30,000 people that is predominantly Latinx and Spanish speaking. “Even though I lived and attended school...
Lymphoma expert Alex Herrera, MD, was born in Miami; his parents were just 19 years old when he was born. Dr. Herrera’s father was born in Puerto Rico to Cuban and Ecuadorian parents. His mother was born in Cuba and came to the United States via Operation Peter Pan, the clandestine program that...
In an analysis from the HOPE trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mina S. Sedrak, MD, MS, and colleagues found that approximately one-fifth of older women with early-stage breast cancer received a relative dose intensity (RDI) of neoadjuvant/adjuvant chemotherapy that was below...
In an analysis from the BMT Survivor Study (BMTSS) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that survivors of blood or marrow transplantation (BMT) were more likely to have high out-of-pocket medical costs vs comparator siblings during the COVID-19...
In a European cohort study (EPI-CT) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Hauptmann et al found an increased risk of brain cancer with increasing brain radiation dose among children and young adults who had undergone computed tomography (CT) scans. Study Details The study used pooled data from nine...
Researchers observed encouraging response rates in older or high-risk patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) when treated with the triplet combination therapy of azacitidine, venetoclax, and magrolimab in a phase I/II trial, according to new findings presented by Daver et al at...
The use of a simplified treatment regimen by oncologists—along with management recommendations and 24/7 support provided by a limited and dedicated group of academic disease experts—resulted in a decrease in early deaths from acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). In the multicenter prospective trial...
A new clinical tool may pinpoint which patients with clonal hematopoiesis are at highest risk for cancer progression, according to new findings presented by Weeks et al at the 2022 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition (Abstract 926). Background Clonal hematopoiesis—a...
Research shows that long-term survivors of pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma are at an elevated risk for a variety of health conditions, including cardiopulmonary morbidity, cognitive impairment, and premature death, and could also be at heightened risk for the premature onset of dementia. A new study of...
Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center showed that inhibiting menin with an oral small-molecule inhibitor of the menin-KMT2A interaction, SNDX-5613—now named revumenib—yielded encouraging responses for patients with advanced acute leukemias and KMT2A rearrangements or...
In a recent trial of the European MCL Network, people with mantle cell lymphoma who received the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib had rates of progression-free survival and overall survival that were on par with the current standard of care (high-dose immunochemotherapy followed by...
Patients with multiple tumors in a single breast who underwent a lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy had local recurrence rates comparable to those historically observed in patients with a single tumor, according to new findings presented by Judy C. Boughey, MD, and colleagues at the 2022 San...
On December 9, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients aged 2 years and older with unresectable or metastatic alveolar soft-part sarcoma (ASPS). Study ML39345 Efficacy was evaluated in Study ML39345...
My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1994, when he was just 55 years old. He died 6 years later. The cancer was so aggressive, it took only a few weeks from the time he was diagnosed for the cancer to grow to the size of a softball, and even a radical prostatectomy couldn’t save his...
Physiologic changes of pregnancy, such as increased breast volume and firmness, present challenges to detecting breast cancer. Meeting those challenges requires “education and continued diligence, both on the patient side as well as on the physician side,” Luis Zabala Blanco, Jr, MD, said in an...
“Pregnancy confers a dual effect” on breast cancer risk, “with an initial transient increased risk for breast cancer that is followed by long-term protection over time,” Luis Zabala Blanco, Jr, MD, noted in an update on the pathology of pregnancy-associated breast cancer, which was presented at the ...
“I knew my husband was dying in June. He’d been living with a terminal diagnosis for 6 years, but suddenly his cancer turned aggressive…. The last time we saw the oncologist, he sent us home with a DNR order and told me to put it on the refrigerator, because that’s where the EMTs look,” writes...
The ASCO Post is pleased to continue this occasional special focus on the worldwide cancer burden. In this issue, we feature a close look at the cancer incidence and mortality rates in Bolivia. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the...
Lisa A. Carey, MD, and Joannie M. Ivory, MD, MSPH, both of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discuss the higher frequency and treatment implications of nonluminal A or high-risk tumors in Black and younger women. In this study, PAM50 and 21-gene assays revealed different demographic...
The repercussions from the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, to overturn Roe v Wade, effectively ending a nearly 50-year federal constitutional right to an abortion and allowing instead states to determine abortion access, are starting to be felt in the cancer care community. The ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Damgacioglu et al found that squamous cell carcinoma of the anus incidence and mortality rates increased in men and women aged ≥ 50 years at diagnosis between 2001 to 2005 and 2014 to 2018, with increases concentrated in Midwestern and...
From November 11 to 15, delegates from ASCO participated in the 2022 Interim Meeting of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) House of Delegates (HOD). The AMA HOD is the principal policy-making body of AMA and meets twice a year to discuss pressing issues and establish policies the AMA uses...
Patients with breast cancer who paused their endocrine therapy while attempting to conceive experienced short-term rates of breast cancer recurrence similar to patients with breast cancer who did not pause their therapy for pregnancy—and many of them went on to conceive and deliver healthy babies,...
Molecular testing and genomic testing are now considered standard of care in breast cancer, guiding treatment decisions in early breast cancer and targeted therapies in the metastatic setting. “But tumors evolve,” Virginia Kaklamani, MD, DSc, reminded participants at the 2022 Lynn Sage Breast...
Routine monitoring in the real world may help to identify patients with cancer who are experiencing challenging symptoms, without significantly disrupting clinical workload, according to data presented during the 2022 ASCO Quality Care Symposium.1,2 The analysis of nearly 40,000 patient-reported...
Many radiation oncologists tend to discuss the sexual side effects of radiation therapy, specifically brachytherapy, with men more often than with women, according to a two-part study reported at the 2022 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.1 At a high-volume cancer...
According to a recent article published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, cancer care in the United States exceeded $208 billion in 2020 and is expected to surpass $240 billion by 2030.1 These estimates are driven largely by a growing and aging population. The expenditures...
Residual tumors from Black patients with estrogen receptor–positive/HER2-negative primary breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy had a higher risk score associated with a biomarker of distant metastatic recurrence compared with tumors from White patients, according to new findings...
Among premenopausal patients with hormone receptor–positive, early-stage breast cancer enrolled in the SOFT trial, those with a high score on the Breast Cancer Index genomic assay had an increased risk of distant recurrence—and those with a low score on the Breast Cancer Index may have benefited...
Non-Hispanic Black patients with lymph node–positive, hormone receptor (HR)–positive/HER2-negative breast cancer experienced worse outcomes compared with the outcomes of non-Hispanic White, Asian, and Hispanic patients—despite similar 21-gene recurrence scores—according to new findings presented by ...
Taken together with the primary clinical results, a secondary analysis of the phase III SWOG S1404 randomized clinical trial demonstrated that pembrolizumab provides superior clinical and patient-reported quality-of-life outcomes compared to standard of care with adjuvant ipilimumab or high-dose...
In a retrospective analysis reported in JAMA Network Open, Magliocco et al found that among patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer receiving bladder-preserving trimodality therapy, those with a lower expression of the DNA repair protein MRE11 had significantly poorer disease-specific...
In a cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Chen et al found that postmenopausal breast cancer survivors with exercise patterns categorized as active or moderately active had significantly reduced risk for all-cause mortality compared to those with patterns categorized as insufficiently...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Zhang et al found that U.S. counties with greater deprivation as measured by residential racial and economic segregation using the Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE) had higher cancer mortality rates vs less deprived counties. Study Details The study...
In a U.S. cross-sectional study reported in JAMA Oncology, Oakes et al found that as of December 2021, breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening rates remained below pre–COVID-19 pandemic levels, despite initial rebounds in some rates. Reduced screening rates were accompanied by reduced...
New research has shed light on how skewed X chromosome inactivation may be linked to the development of cancer and cardiovascular disease, according to a novel study published by Roberts et al in eLife. Background Because the X chromosome has so many more genes than the Y chromosome, in every cell...
Patients older than 65 years may be undergoing unnecessary cervical cancer screenings, and more public health data may be needed on the utilization of cervical cancer screening–associated services among older patients to prevent potential harm and unnecessary costs, according to a new study...
In a study reported as a research letter in JAMA, Shahmoradi et al found that the incidence of cervical cancer decreased or remained stable in U.S. women between 2001 and 2019, except for an increase in the 30- to 34-year-old age group in more recent years. As stated by the investigators, “A recent ...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mustafa Raoof, MD, MS, and colleagues found that California Medicare Advantage beneficiaries undergoing elective inpatient cancer surgery were less likely than traditional Medicare beneficiaries to have surgery at...
November is Caregiver Awareness Month, and timely findings from a study published by Amonoo et al in the journal Blood Advances suggested that, among caregivers of patients undergoing a stem cell transplant, how someone approaches coping can influence the levels of anxiety, depression, and poor...
Survivors of pediatric cancer who consumed more total sugar, added sugar, and sugar-sweetened beverages had more aging-related health conditions than survivors who consumed less sugar, according to a new study presented by Lan et al at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Special...
Patients with cancer who are living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection had an increased epigenetic age compared with patients with cancer living without the HIV infection, according to a new study presented by Coghill et al at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Botta et al, the population-based EUROCARE-6 study has shown an improvement in 5-year survival rates and estimated cure fractions across patients with childhood cancers diagnosed between 2010 and 2013 vs previous years. Findings differed among cancer types and...
A RECENT REPORT published in Neuro-Oncology1 exposes an alarming reality for children, adolescents, and families facing pediatric brain cancer across the country. The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) funded this groundbreaking report by the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States...